Getting to Know the Authors: Featuring Kendare Blake!

Bio:

Kendare Blake is the author of several novels and short stories, most of which you can find information about via the links above. Her work is sort of dark, always violent, and features passages describing food from when she writes while hungry. She was born in July (for those of you doing book reports) in Seoul, South Korea, but doesn’t speak a lick of Korean, as she was packed off at a very early age to her adoptive parents in the United States. That might be just an excuse, though, as she is pretty bad at learning foreign languages. She enjoys the work of Milan Kundera, Caitlin R Kiernan, Bret Easton Ellis, Richard Linklater, and the late, great Michael Jackson, I mean, come on, he gave us Thriller.
She lives and writes in Kent, Washington, with her husband, their two cat sons (Tybalt and Tyrion Cattister) and their red Doberman dog son, Obi Dog Kenobi.
- See more at: http://kendareblake.com/about/#sthash.EgchHlpd.dpuf

She has written:

   Anna Dressed in Blood, Girl of Nightmares, Antigoddess, Mortal Gods, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader, Sleepwalk Society, Ungodly, When Gods and Vampires Roamed Miami, Slasher Girls & Monster Boys and Violent Ends.

Now on to the Interview!

1) How old were you when you started writing, in your opinion? 
Let's see. I wrote my first novel when I was in seventh grade, so...when I was twelve. It was horrible, of course, about wild horses, and I wrote it by hand in several spiral notebooks in tiny, tiny writing.

2) What do you want a reader to gain from reading your works? 
Enjoyment. Escape. Occasionally some thoughts about stuff. Plus that gain you get to your humanity just by reading any book. But that happens automatically.

3) What are your three top suggestions on becoming an author, or being a pleasure writer? 
To be an author, remain a pleasure writer. If you don't enjoy it, what's the point? Also, keep on reading. Read lots of varied things and pause occasionally to evaluate them critically. And, write. Write, write, write. Your skill at the craft and your style will evolve as you go.

4) What is your favourite novel, why? 
Can't choose a favorite. I have too many favorites. But I haven't talked about American Psycho so I'll say that one this time. It's just so moralistic, so hilarious, so absurd. It elicits response, that novel, and it stays with you.

5) Who is your favourite author, why?
 Can't choose a favorite. I have too many favorites. But I haven't said Joe Hill for awhile, so I'll go with him. The imagination on him stretches for miles. And he writes such fully fleshed, flawed, human characters, just like his dad, Stephen King does. If you haven't read NOS4A2, then you haven't read a proper Christmas story.

6) What are your favorite pass times besides writing?
 I like to play tennis. I love to read, of course. I enjoy hanging with my animals, and being with friends. We've got a young Doberman dog now, so we hike a lot and go to a lot of dog parks. I watch movies, and TV. And food, of course. I love to eat food! Speaking of, I'm hungry. I think I'll go make bacon and toast.

7) Who in your life do you credit your imagination to the most?
 My mom, I guess? She's the one who got me hooked on this reading thing in the first place, by taking me to the library every week and letting me load up the bag with unicorn books. We didn't have much money when I was little, so the library was a good way to go. It was a real event.

8) What are the top five things on your bucket list? 
To be honest, I've done a lot of stuff, so my bucket list grows short. At this point, it's reduced to stuff that I'm mostly just too lazy to get done. So I guess...learn to play a musical instrument (way too lazy to do this) Master a foreign language (this is way too hard!). Ride a Spanish-breed horse (where do I even find one?) Eat and a ridiculously snooty restaurant, like the French Laundry (but ugh, then I'd have to put on a dress and stuff) and, take one of those sunny, do-nothing beach vacations (never interested me before, but what the heck.) I never put things on my bucket list that I have no control over, like seeing one of my books become a movie, or writing a runaway bestseller. That's just...asking for pain and a full bucket.

9) What is your funniest childhood memory? 
Oh, I have lots. Not all are appropriate. Most aren't, actually. Let's see...an appropriate childhood memory...I guess, buffing and shining my dad's bald head while he was asleep in a chair.

10) To the youth of today, if you could tell them one thing, what would it be?
I would tell them, hey, stuff is going to stress you out. But life is long, man, and it will make sense from the other side. Figure out the kind of person that you want to be, and be that. Hold yourself up to your own expectations. Your own expectations. Not anyone else's.
Of course, I wouldn't actually waste my breath saying this to anyone. Youth tends to figure things out on its own, as it goes.

Thanks very much for having me by the Not So Public Library!